Occurrence and risk associated with urban road-deposited microplastics

Abstract

An in-depth understanding of urban road-deposited MPs is important for the accurate prediction of the risk posed by MPs in different exposure scenarios. This study provides new insights into the intrinsic/extrinsic factors in terms of the variability of concentration and species in urban road-deposited MPs. The study results confirmed that a considerable abundance of road-deposited MPs can be identified with the average concentration ranging from 0.33 to 3.64 g m-2. Land use types and sediment particle size are the important factors that contribute to MPs abundance. The majority of detected MPs including polyethylene (PE), polypropylene (PP), polystyrene (PS) and polyethylene terephthalate (PET) are mainly derived from anthropogenic activities in commercial and residential land uses while rubber MP particles in urban road surfaces are mainly derived from tyre wear. The significant correlation (p < 0.05) between MPs and fine dust particles (< 150 µm) indicated the high affinity of small dust particles for MPs. The risk scores from MPs varied greatly from 10 to 11,000 among the study sites, which indicated the significant spatial variation of potential environmental risks posed by road-deposited MPs. The hotspots of risks posed by MPs were in areas with a high fraction of industrial, commercial and residential land uses. Specifically, the highest risk from MPs was found in mixed industrial and residential areas.